The Hindu : Kerala News : Toll rises to 161; relief work on

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Toll rises to 161; relief work on

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, DEC. 27. The toll in Sunday's onslaught of seismic waves on the Kerala coast went up to 161, as search teams came up with more bodies in the fishing villages of Alappad in Kollam district and Arattupuzha in Alappuzha district today.

Thirty-two bodies were dragged out of the debris left behind by the killer waves in Alappad during the course of the day. In Arattupuzha, search teams came across eight more bodies. With these, the death count in Kollam district has gone up to 128 and that in Alappuzha district to 29. The other four deaths reported on Sunday were in Ernakulam district.

Over 500 injured people are in various hospitals in Kollam, Alappuzha and Ernakulam districts, according to reports from our news bureaus.

Devastated look

The worst-hit villages of Alappad and Arattupuzha wore a devastated look this morning. Huts had disappeared and many concrete buildings had been reduced into rubble. Strewn around the landscape were household utensils, tattered clothes, trunks, broken cots and chairs and articles of everyday use, steeped in wet sand and mud. There were also bloated carcasses of cows and goats. And on the beach were battered fishing canoes.

Women and children who had survived the calamity were either in relief camps or hospitals. The local men, aided by voluntary organisations, the Fire Force and the police, were searching for bodies.

Many missing

It is still not clear how many people are missing. The survivors remain scattered in relief camps and hospitals.

The police and Fire force teams assigned to carry out rescue operations in Alappad reached the place only around 11 a.m. in the morning.

Local men and volunteers from outside had by then located many bodies from the wreckage of houses. For several minutes, the official rescue party had to confront the anger of the local men for having arrived late.

The MP from Kollam, N.K. Premachandran, who reached there then, had to pacify the protesters before the police and the Fire Force could join the search.

Most of the injured from Alappad village are being treated at the Government hospital in Karunagappally. Several women who lost their kin were wailing hysterically, while many others were still in a daze. The wards were all overcrowded.

There was no dearth of food and water in the relief camps, but the problem of clothing has still not been addressed by the district administrations either in Kollam or Alappuzha.

A five-member team of Ministers led by the Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, is overseeing relief operations in the two districts. Mr. Chandy rushed back to Karunagappally from Thiruvananthapuram this afternoon, after a Cabinet meeting he had called to discuss the crisis wrought by the seismic waves.

45,000 shifted

The Government today said that nearly 45,000 people had been shifted from the affected coastal villages to relief camps opened in various parts of the State.

In all, 135 relief camps are functioning in the districts of Alappuzha, Kollam, Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Kozhikode.

The Chief Minister called upon the people of the State to contribute generously towards the relief and rehabilitation of the affected.

The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, is scheduled to visit the calamity-hit areas of Kollam and Alappuzha districts tomorrow.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala